


First Paternity Package

by winryofresembool



Series: Edwin Week [1]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: EdWin Week, EdWin Week 2019, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, New Parents, just finnish things, paternity package, prompt: firsts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-15 15:51:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18672787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winryofresembool/pseuds/winryofresembool
Summary: Winry tries to comfort Ed, who is insecure about his fathering skills





	First Paternity Package

**Author's Note:**

> It's good to be back! Sorry about the long silence. This fic is meant for the Edwin (503) week, and I'm so excited about this event as there's been a severe lack of Edwin in my life lately!
> 
> About the topic of this fic: in Finland (where I live), expecting women get to choose if they want a certain amount of money from the state, or if they want to get a maternity package full of baby clothes and other necessities instead. Well, what happened in my “real life” was that my sister-in-law got my brother a paternity package (aka she picked him some dad-themed items), and the idea was imo so sweet that I had to channel it into an Edwin fic. 
> 
> BTW, on 3rd of May I will FINALLY give LCMTI the conclusion it deserves (or... at least /try/) so look forward to that! :)
> 
> Now, please enjoy, and don't forget that I live for comments!

“Ed, you have been so quiet today… That’s so unlike you,” Winry noted as they were resting in the living room after the dinner. Ed turned his attention from his book to his wife, scowling at her.

“Yeah? I’m quiet a lot when I’m doing my research,” he claimed.

“That might be true, but you haven’t even gushed about my stomach at all for at least 2 days now. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”

Winry was 8 months pregnant and starting to feel like she was ready to pop out any moment now. Her husband’s Maes Hughes like excitement over the baby was only adding to her discomfort. While it was sweet, his constant “Is everything OK? Do you need something? A blanket? Water? A pillow? Is the baby kicking? Are you SURE that wasn’t a contraction? (“no, Ed, it was just a fart”)” was starting to get on Winry’s nerves now that they were so close to the due date. However, that gushing had suddenly ended a couple of days ago, and Winry didn’t know what to make of it. While it was a relief that she managed to go all the way from the sofa to the toilet without him asking what was wrong when the baby was simply pressing against her bladder, she knew that something wasn’t right. Something bothered Ed, and he wasn’t telling her what it was.

“Huh? I thought it was annoying you.” Ed shrugged, trying to brush the topic off.

“Since when have you cared whether something annoys me or not?” Winry rolled her eyes. There was some seriousness behind her question, though; despite being a couple, the two of them were the masters of annoying each other. Ed had even said once that he wouldn’t want to date someone with whom he couldn’t have occasional bickering battles. The fact that Ed used that excuse made Winry even more convinced that Ed was keeping something from her.

“You are being pushy, woman.” Ed glared at her for a moment before hiding his face behind his huge alchemy book. He didn’t get to fake-read it too long, though, because Winry smacked him on the head with a newspaper that had been lying on the sofa table.

“What the hell, Winry? I’m trying to read that!” he exclaimed and tried to take his book back from his wife who had snatched it from him when he had tried to defend himself from the newspaper attack.

“No, you are trying to ignore me,” Winry said, holding the book out of Ed’s reach. “And as your pregnant wife I can’t accept that. Seriously. Talk to me. If you can’t tell me what’s bothering you, then we have much bigger problems than I thought…”

“If you really must know…” Ed sighed in defeat after a long silence. “Al gave me this the other day.” He pulled a book he had really been reading when Winry wasn’t nearby from behind the sofa cushions, and Winry’s mouth formed a huge ‘o’ when she read the title.

“How to be a good parent,” it said.

“Ed…” Winry started, but her brain couldn’t decide what to say next before Ed continued:

“This book… has made me realize there’s still so much I don’t know, so many things that I haven’t experienced myself because my dad was never there,” he uttered bitterly. “And… there are moments when I’m wondering if I’m ready for this.”

“Ed, my granny always says none of us are really ready for the first baby, no matter how well prepared we are, but we’ll still figure it out eventually…” Winry tried to comfort him, but that wasn’t enough to convince Ed.

“No, you don’t understand. What if I become like my dad? What if one day I just leave you and… I could never forgive myself for that!”

“Listen,” Winry said as softly as possible even though she couldn’t deny that Ed’s words upsetted her. “The fact that you worry about that means that you are different from him. I know that you would never do that to your own child when you know what it feels like. I understand why you are scared… hell, I’m scared too! Remember, you’re not the only one without parent models in this room!

“Yeah, you are right. I’m sorry.” 

Winry didn’t answer to Ed’s apology, instead she said as an afterthought: “We have already been through so much together… and we have always survived, right? And Granny, Al, Mrs. Gracia, Mrs. Izumi, everyone will help us.”

“I know.” At least he gave Winry a quick grin, which she took as a good sign.

“If you’re still not convinced… I suppose I could give you my present a little early,” Winry noted mysteriously and left the living room, getting something from a closet that Ed never checked. Soon she returned and handed him a box that had apparently been lying there for a while now.

“What’s this about?” Ed asked with confusion. “It’s not my birthday or anything…”

“I was going to give this to you after the baby was born, but… I suppose this is as good a time as any.” Winry stated.

Ed lifted the lid of the box, and saw the box was full of objects… for the baby.

“Huh? What’s the meaning of this?” he asked, still not understanding where Winry was aiming to. How was this supposed to cheer him up?

“It’s something I like to call a ‘paternity package’! In some countries, I hear a woman who is expecting receives a maternity package from the state, and the package is full of baby clothes and other necessities needed for taking care of a baby. The baby can even sleep in the box when it’s still tiny! But yeah, this is meant for you, and I made it. Well, Al helped me a bit, because I had a hard time deciding what you’d like…”

“Oh…”

Ed started taking in everything that was in the box. First he found a baby’s bodice that said ‘daddy’s little sunshine’ on the front. Winry blushed a bit when he kept staring at it with an unreadable expression, and said “I know, it’s a bit cheesy, but…”

“No, it’s… sweet…” Ed said, surprising her. “Did you make the text yourself?”

“I did…” Winry admitted.

The next thing he found from the box was a rag for wiping the baby’s face, and to Ed’s surprise it had black skull shapes printed on it.

“Out of all people I know, I wouldn’t have expected you to get me… well, technically, the baby… something like this… I have always thought you call them ‘tacky’…”

“It is tacky! But it’s also something you like so we thought it would make you happy…” Winry twitched her hands nervously.

“I can’t believe you’d get me all this…” Ed patted Winry briefly on the head affectionately before turning his attention back to the box. “What the… This must be the coolest pacifier I’ve ever seen!” He lifted the small object closer to his face so he could see the letters Al had transmuted into the handle better. ‘Silencing transmutation’, it said. Ed couldn’t hide his grin anymore, as it got wider and wider the more baby things he found from the box.

Finally, he lifted the biggest object from the bottom of the box and unfolded it. It was a baby’s blanket, and someone (most likely Winry) had drawn simple, small transmutation circles on it with a fabric pen. When Ed took them in better, he realized it was a code that he needed to break. It didn’t take him too long, though:

S-U-C-C-E-S-S-F-U-L H-U-M-A-N T-R-A-N-S-M-U-T-A-T-I-O-N

He started laughing so hard he doubled over, and when he finally calmed down enough to see Winry’s expression, he noticed she was having a hurt expression on her face.

“Why are you laughing?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Because…” Ed guffawed, wiping a couple of tears from the corners of his eyes. “This must be the best present ever! Only you and Al would do something like this! Did Al help you with the code?”

“Well, he gave me the idea about the transmutation circles, but I made the code myself…”

“I always knew there was a reason why I married you!” Ed ruffled Winry’s hair again, now longer than earlier.

“Hey!”

“Seriously, though, this is… wonderful. You always manage to cheer me up… Just like that day at the train station.”

“Now, do you believe that /I/ believe in you?” Winry asked, happy about the shift in Ed’s mood.

“Yeah… Thank you, Gearhead,” Ed said, smiling widely.

“No problem, Alchemy freak.” Winry answered, receiving a wet kiss on her cheek.


End file.
